In-Home Health Care - All posts tagged In-Home Health Care

Like many other cosseted Gen X-ers, I sometimes fantasize about winning a MacArthur Fellowship, one of those renowned “genius grants” that comes with a prize of $500,000, along with the right to require your friends to refer to you as “Mr. Genius” in all conversations and emails. My fantasy usually involves being recognized for something glamorous and artsy – playing incendiary bluegrass mandolin, for example. But based on recent history, my odds would probably be better if I concentrated on caring for the elderly...

If you’re expecting to have to use long-term-care services for yourself or a loved one anytime soon, here’s a bit of good news: Three types of services that could help you stay at home, and postpone moving into an assisted-living facility or nursing home, cost the same this year as last year, according to a survey of long-term-care costs released today by Genworth Financial Inc., Richmond, Va., one of the country’s largest long-term-care insurers. Genworth has conducted a nationwide survey of such costs since 2004.

In-home services are important to understand, since families often pay for them out of pocket to postpone moving a loved one into institutional care. And even if you’re lucky enough to have long-term-care insurance that helps pay for home care, you can often make it stretch over a longer time period by shopping around for more affordable care.

Genworth grouped in-home services into three categories: Homemaker services, such as cooking and errand-running, for which the national median rate is $18 an hour; home-health-aide services, which is hands-on personal care including bathing and dressing, with a national median rate of $19 an hour; and adult day health care, which provides social and support services in a community-based setting, at a national median rate of $60 a day.

The financial picture is grimmer for institutional care. The national median monthly rate for a one-bedroom assisted-living unit is $3,261 – a 2.4% increase from last year. Such facilities typically provide hands-on personal care and medical care for those who cannot live by themselves but do not require the constant care provided by a nursing home. The national median daily rate for a semi-private (in other words, shared) room in a nursing home that provides skilled nursing care 24 hours a day is $193, a 5.7% increase from last year. And a private room costs $213 a day, up 5.1% from 2010.

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Encore examines the changing nature of retirement, from new rules and guidelines for financial security to the shifting identities and priorities of today’s retirees. The blog also explores news that affects retirement, from the Wall Street Journal Digital Network and around the web. Lead bloggers are reporter Catey Hill and senior editor Jeremy Olshan. Other contributors include The Wall Street Journal’s retirement columnists Glenn Ruffenach and Anne Tergesen; the Director for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Alicia Munnell; and the Director of Research for Pinnacle Advisory Group, Michael Kitces, CFP.